Facade Optimization

Uster, neighboring town near Zurich is developing a Masterplan (Masterplan by EM2N, 2009) to densify its city center and reactivate the Stadtpark along the river's edge. Uster is now becoming one of Zurich largest residential satellite towns, just 15 minutes away by train ride, and each architectural intervention is closely monitored by its urban planning department. The site is located on top of an active two story telecommunications Hub operated by Swisscom, Switzerland's largest telecom provider.

The proposal aims to integrate the hub in its volume, add generous retail space to activate the groundfloor and provide a set of very unique housing typologies facing the park. In order to maximize retail facade and groundfloor use, the parking is moved to the first floor of the building. The proposed housing typologies offer a privileged facade exposure, with park views from all apartments.

The slender proportions and positions of the tower come from a custom designed script that computes the project's sun shading to fulfill the "2-hour shadow" regulation of Kanton Zurich, a verification step required to comply with current regulation. I designed this script to accelerate an otherwise time consuming geometric process, was used in the early stages of the design to test all design options and visualize the range of possibilities the final scheme offered. At a later stage of the design process, Galapagos, an evolutionary engine for Grasshopper was used to generate different geometrical design solutions with a 35% facade aperture value (text from EM2N website).

Tools for Architects

Development and implementation of custom proprietary algorithms for EM2N Architekten in Zurich, Switzerland to accelerate the design process.

Facade Generation

The facade iterator allows for quick testing of multiple facade variations given an envelope volume.

Uster, neighboring town near Zurich is developing a Masterplan (Masterplan by EM2N, 2009) to densify its city center and reactivate the Stadtpark along the river's edge. Uster is now becoming one of Zurich largest residential satellite towns, just 15 minutes away by train ride, and each architectural intervention is closely monitored by its urban planning department. The site is located on top of an active two story telecommunications Hub operated by Swisscom, Switzerland's largest telecom provider.

The proposal aims to integrate the hub in its volume, add generous retail space to activate the groundfloor and provide a set of very unique housing typologies facing the park. In order to maximize retail facade and groundfloor use, the parking is moved to the first floor of the building. The proposed housing typologies offer a privileged facade exposure, with park views from all apartments.

The slender proportions and positions of the tower come from a custom designed script that computes the project's sun shading to fulfill the "2-hour shadow" regulation of Kanton Zurich, a verification step required to comply with current regulation. I designed this script to accelerate an otherwise time consuming geometric process, was used in the early stages of the design to test all design options and visualize the range of possibilities the final scheme offered. At a later stage of the design process, Galapagos, an evolutionary engine for Grasshopper was used to generate different geometrical design solutions with a 35% facade aperture value (text from EM2N website).